Yongding is well known by Sea Shepherd and NGO's like Greenpeace for changing her name. In her 20-year career this vessel has been known to change her name at least 10 times. Yongding has had recent clashes with both Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace, the New Zealand Navy, and the Australian Coast Guard and each time she managed to slip through their fingers until now.

in January of 2015 Yongding was boarded along with her sisters Kunlun and Songhua by the New Zealand Navy, Sea Shepherd, and the Australian coast guard and was chased out of Antartica. On the morning of May 20th 2015 Captain Peter Hammarstedt of the Bob Barker found both the Songhua and Yongding in Cabo Verde doing in an illegal offload and called the police. Hours later Yongding and Songhua were arrested and are currently in a South African impound yard awaiting sale and eventual scrapping.

Yongding gets arrested for poaching in Cabo Verde Africa behind her is the Songhua. Both vessels were doing an illegal offload when Captain Peter Hammarstedt called the police.